Barrel rolls and breaches were practiced today by the most beautiful female Humpback calf as she showed off to us for over an hour with over 40+ breaches! Conditions today were perfect for making a bit of noise on the waters surface and after two feeds from mum (every thirty minutes) she had plenty of energy to use while perfecting her breach and pec slaps and she will need both of these behaviours to call in the boys when she gets a bit older… the barrel rolls were just for fun.
We could identify this calf as a young female thanks to one of her breaches that was only meters away from our bow and as she landed we could see on her lower belly, just to the left of her belly button, the two developing mammary slits. The females also have one small lump that is known as the hemispherical lobe (males do not have this) which was also visible on this young female. We are always interested to identify males and females as it tells us a lot about their behaviour and explains why this female today was busy practicing the perfect breach and pec slaps that she will need in the future to find a suitable mate.
